French politician
Jacques Soustelle
(3 February 1912 ? 6 August 1990) was an important and early figure of the
Free French Forces
, a politician who served in the French National Assembly and at one time served as Governor General of Algeria, an
anthropologist
specializing in
Pre-Columbian
civilizations, and vice-director of the
Musee de l'Homme
in Paris in 1939. Soustelle and his followers opposed any compromise with anticolonial activists in Algeria in the
Algerian War
.
[1]
As
Governor-General of Algeria
, he helped the rise of
Charles de Gaulle
to the presidency of the Fifth Republic, but broke with De Gaulle over Algerian independence, joined the
OAS
in their efforts to overthrow De Gaulle and lived in exile between 1961 and 1968. On returning to France he resumed political and academic activity and was elected to the
Academie francaise
in 1983.
[2]
Biography
[
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]
Jacques Soustelle was born in
Montpellier
, into a Protestant working-class family. A brilliant high school student, he was admitted to the
Ecole Normale Superieure
de la rue d'Ulm. At the age of 20, he was admitted at the first place at the competitive exam of
agregation de philosophie
(high-level grade for teaching). An
anti-fascist
, he was general-secretary in 1935 of the French Union of Intellectuals against Fascism.
Anthropology of Mesoamerica
[
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]
Soustelle developed an interest in
Ethnology
while working at the Musee de l'Homme under
Paul Rivet
. Rivet sent him to Mexico, after Soustelle became an
Agrege
, to study the
Otomi people
. Soustelle wrote his first major book
Mexique, Terre Indienne
(Mexico is Indian) about his time with the Otomi.
[3]
France Libre
[
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]
After the
Armistice of 22 June 1940
, he left
Mexico
to join the
Free French Forces
(FFL) in London.
Charles de Gaulle
charged him with a diplomatic mission in Latin America (1941), to set up support committees for Free France, to cut short the diplomatic efforts of Petainists throughout the continent.
[4]
He headed the intelligence service
Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action
(BCRA).
He joined the
Comite national francais
, (Government of the
Free France
, fighting
Vichy France
, and the
Axis powers
) in London, then ran the
commissariat national a l’Information
(1942).
Appointed to head the
Special Services Branch
(DGHS) in
Algiers
in (1943?1944) by the
French Committee of National Liberation
), He was Commissioner of the Republic (prefect) in
Bordeaux
then in the Liberation deputy of
Mayenne
.
Reconstruction of France
[
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]
In 1945, he served first as Minister of Information, then as Minister of the Colonies. From 1947 to 1951, he served as Secretary General of the
Gaullist
party
Rassemblement du Peuple Francais
(RPF) and was one De Gaulle's closest counsellors. Soustelle was a strong supporter of
Israel
. He was a chairman of the Franco-Israel Alliance, which campaigned for a closer military relationship between France and Israel.
[5]
Algeria
[
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]
He was nominated Governor General of
Algeria
by
Pierre Mendes France
in 1955?56,
favouring
the integration of the Muslim community in the
French Departments
along the
Mediterranean
coast. Thanks to Soustelle's support during the
May 1958 Algiers revolt
, De Gaulle returned to power.
Though he believed he would become Algeria Secretary, Soustelle was only named Information Minister in June 1958. In 1959, he was appointed Minister of State in charge of Overseas Departments by De Gaulle. He was unharmed after three
Front de Liberation Nationale
(FLN) members attempted to assassinate him by shooting his car on the
Place de l'Etoile
in Paris. He asked De Gaulle for a presidential pardon for the only attacker who had been arrested and sentenced to death. Soustelle disagreed with De Gaulle's sudden turn for Algerian independence. He analyzed this turnaround in his book
L'Esperance trahie
(Broken Hope). Soustelle was dismissed from the cabinet and the Gaullist party
Union pour la nouvelle Republique
(
UNR
) in 1960 and joined the terrorist
Organisation armee secrete
(OAS) in the fight against the independence of
Algeria
. When the OAS was replaced by the
Conseil National de la Resistance
(CNR), he joined this new organization with
Georges Bidault
, former President of the World War II
National Council of the Resistance
. His activities led his being sued for attempting to undermine the authority of the French state. He lived in exile between 1961 and his 1968 amnesty.
National Assembly
[
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]
Soustelle was elected to France's
National Assembly
(France's lower House) three times, first representing
Mayenne
in 1945?46, then the
Rhone
(1951?58) as a Gaullist, and from 1973 to 1978 as a member of the centrist
Mouvement Reformateur
. In 1974, he supported the bill legalizing
abortion
presented by
Simone Veil
.
[6]
He died, aged 78, in
Neuilly-sur-Seine
.
Honours
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Selected publications
[
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]
- La culture materielle des Indiens Lacandons
(1937)
- La famille otomi-pame du Mexique central
(1937)
- Envers et contre tout: souvenirs et documents sur la France libre
(1947, 1950)
- La vie quotidienne des Azteques
(1955)
- Aimee et souffrante Algerie
(1956)
- Le drame algerien et la decadence francaise
(1957)
- L'esperance trahie, 1958?1961
(1962)
- L'art du Mexique ancien
(1966)
- Les quatre soleils: souvenirs et reflexion d'un ethnologue en Mexique
(1967)
- La longue marche d'Israel
(1968)
- Mexique, terre indienne
(1971)
- Les Olmeques
(1979)
- Lettre ouvert aux victimes de la decolonisation
(1973)
- L'anthropologie francaise et les civilisations autochtones de l'Amerique
(1989)
References
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External links
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